How did the "Daily painting" movement begin?

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6x8 oil on masonite, "Cloud study."
About three years ago 15 artists began meeting on the internet and pledged to discipline themselves to paint at least five of the seven days a week (there were other artists before this that painted daily). As you can imagine, it doesn't take long before the paintings began piling up and some began marketing their work to family and friend -- and then on eBay auctions. The paintings are usually small such as this study. I paint about three a week; others paint daily, weekly, monthly or at some interval.

By setting a goal of painting at some interval, the artists and I are accountable to one another and themselves. Because they are small, the cost of the paintings is low. As a result, what started out as an exercise in discipline now has become the "Daily Painting" movement as people began buying up almost every painting the artists create. Prices are as low as a few dollars but most of the daily paintings sell for $100 and less.

Many paint only small daily works, others are like me and paint larger gallery sizes. To see more of my work go to http://www.avonwaters.com/.

What Shape Canvas is needed

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This 4x5 inch oil on canvas was done on my lap sitting by a stream on a gray day. The stream feeds into the Mississenwa River in Indiana. The gray day muted the colors and deadened the highlights in the deep woods. The orange comes from the fresh bed of leaves on the ground -- the rains had not yet turned them into a black tea.

The shape of a canvas is mostly determined by what I'm comfortable painting on. Some artists prefer square canvases over rectangles, and some have an affinity for long or narrow canvases. Not always, but usually I will pick sizes that are considered traditional or ready-made. This is because the frames for these are substantially cheaper. Ready-made frames can be half the price of a custom frame.

With that said, it is important to remember that an artist usually will pick a canvas shape that fits the subject. As an artist, if I try to make a scene fit the canvas rather than use a canvas with proportions that fit the scene, then I'm generally not as happy with the end results.
Like many artists, I carry with me two "L" shaped pieces of cardboard. On each leg of the cardboard I have marked various sizes in inches. When I put the two "L"s together to form a frame, I can slide them to the marks to match the proportions of the canvas I am using. Then I can look through this cardboard frame at my scene and eliminate all the things I don't want in the picture. For years artists have used their index fingers and thumbs of both hands to create a frame or taken paper and cardboard frames into the field with them to aid in fitting what they are painting onto the canvas

How do artists decide what size to paint?

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This 20x24 oil on canvas was inspired by gunfire. I've been painting deep in the woods but chose to stay in the open field because of all the deer hunters and shots ringing out around me. Besides, I don’t look good in orange and my easel sticks up in the air and might just look like antlers. For many painters painting out of doors or in Plein air, this is a large canvas size.

The size of canvas an artist uses can be determined by a number of reasons. Usually I'll carry with me a variety of sizes of canvas from 5x5 inches on up and my enthusiasum for the subject will dictate the size. If I feel like I want to do a quick study, I'll use a small canvas. But painter style will often dictate a need for a larger canvas and in this case, that is what happened.

I have two styles I like to paint in; impressionistic where the paint is thick (impasto) and lights and darks are depicted in broad strokes separate brush strokes – and often very loose. But sometimes I like to interpret subjects using expressionistic color – expressing he scene in exaggerated or unusual color and using space and planes or shapes of planes to create depth. And that was what I wanted here. The corn field only needed a few strokes to simulate the picked rows. More would have distracted from the vertical motion of the bare trees and the oak that still clung to its leaves. Too much detail would kill the effect I was after.

Unfortunately but true, sometimes the size is dictated solely by what the artist has on hand. I've painted a number of pictures on a certain size because that was the canvas on sale or there was an old painting I wanted to get rid of by painting over it.

Galleries serve a positive purpose too

This 6x8 inch oil on masonite, "Dead End Road" was inspired by the irony of it being almost the end of fall. It was a cold day and I had to wear gloves. Maybe that is why the brush work here is looser than in most. This painting is on an eBay auction for 7 days, click here to place a bid.

Maybe I’ve given the impression that I have great distain for galleries and gallery goers; not true. The majority of gallery goers are well informed, well educated and know their art. Unfortunately, while visiting gallery shows to write show critiques, I ran in to a number of visitors that, although they were well educated, it was obvious that they were using what they knew to intimidate others or to impress friends they brought along with them for the evening.

One of the purposes of this blog is to eliminate the intimidation people feel about art. How and why people feel intimidated varies, but I’m guessing that some of the intimidation comes from not being able to “speak the language.” The fact is, you don’t have to speak the language, but I hope over time my readers will get enough facts and gain the confidence to enter a gallery and be comfortable saying why they like something or don’t like something.

Galleries serve another purpose for artists. They provide a sales outlet. But it is the gallery that decides what is worthy of being shown and what doesn’t deserve to be shown. The artists pay dearly to be part of a gallery, giving back 50 to 60 percent of the sale price and in many cases paying the shipping and insurance both ways for the show. It does free the artist’s time to do more work because some, not all, of the marketing is placed in someone else’s hands. The Internet is changing who gets to decide what should be seen by others and what should not. Anyone can post anything – no matter what their skill level. Buyers now must either rely on the gallery owners to pre screen art or they must gain a little knowledge themselves. But remember, if you decide to ever visit a gallery, don’t use your knowledge to intimidate others – or I’ll call you a gallery hound too.

Ideas about where to find artists to talk to

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If you like art but don't go to galleries, you need to read on – this blog is for you.

In the last entry I mentioned talking to artists to not only learn more about the creative process, but as a great way to educate yourself on art. As I said, most artists love to talk about their work. Many prefer to talk to the new collector or the person who is trying to learn about art, more so than the gallery hound (that's the person who comes up to an artist at an opening and starts spouting off art jargon or dropping names of art movements and styles).

So where can you find artists to talk to without having to go to galleries? There are several ways that are very non-threatening. The first is the easiest, go to an art festival or an arts and crafts show. The next easiest way is to do a search for what called a "paint-out" – more on this later, but this is where artists interested in painting outdoors are invited to a town or location. They paint all day and show their work off at the end of the day, usually in a public place. The next way is to look for something called an "Open Studio" tour. I have participated in open studios and they really do offer a chance to talk to the artists and ask questions about specific works and how they were created.

Studio tours are great – more on this later too. Usually these are in areas where several artists have studios and they open their studios up so the general public can tour their workplaces. As this blog progresses I'll talk more about these opportunities and events.

The work featured today was inspired by the bright color of the huge pile of corn. The bright colors of fall were dull in comparison to the corn. As an artist, finding the unexpected among the usual often creates surprise, as in this case.

The artist's creation process

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Not all art is created equal. By that I mean, every artist starts out to create an image, or vision, that they have in their head. But what ends up on the canvas each time doesn't always match the image. Sometimes the outcome is better than expected and sometimes it is less than expected. While it is true that some artists don't have a preconceived idea and like to let things happen, many like myself preconceive the outcome, whether consciously or subconsciously.

Many people who like art and buy art, often say they admire the creation process that the artist goes through.

To learn more about art and the creation process I mentioned, don't be afraid to talk to the artists. Most enjoy talking about what they do. By asking questions you can learn how artists go about picking a subject, the colors and style they use.
This work was inspired by contrasts much as the last one was. But in this case, it was the row of nearly bare trees out in the open against the sky. These were small Sycamore

Fall birch

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You don't have to be able to put into words why you like something. Leave that to the gallery folks or the critic who writes a piece for the local newspaper. All you have to do is know that when you see something, you like it.

Chances are, it's the color, subject or the way the artist has composed the visual elements that attract you to a visual piece. Later on in this blog I'll discuss some of those things as I post my pictures. But for now, all you have to do is to be ready to react to something and recognize that you have had a reaction.

Now that sounds strange, but there are some people that are so conditioned by others' reactions or by the so called art education of what art is, that they subconsciously shrink back from their own reactions and adopt the reactions they learn from others.

The inspiration for this painting was the contrast of the trees. Not just the color, but the type of trees and how they grow. This birch tree not only had contrasting leaves, but birch branches point down. This constrasts with the maples that around this tree with branches that grow pointing up. The other contrast is the blue-gray bark of the birch and the dark bark of the maples.

Off Road trail into the woods

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So you like art but say you don't know anything about it. This blog is for you.

You only have to know one thing, do you like what you see? If so, then that is all you really have to know to enjoy art. What is good art to one person isn't necessarily what is good art to the next – otherwise all the artists would find out what "art is" and would be doing the same thing and the same painting year after year. And it's because they are not doing the same thing, that makes art and ones taste for a painting very subjective.
You don't have to be part of the wine and cheese crowd that visits galleries to enjoy art or even be a gallery hopper to talk about it. In my opinion, that crowd does a disservice to art by intimidating others who can't look at an artist work and talk in the terms they use.

Today's painting is simple. It's a response I had to the half mile hike into the woods after following the tracks 4x4 off roaders made illegally into the woods in the Mississenwa Reservoir. This 6x8 inch oil on masonite is a quick study of the end of the trail where the tracks when up a hil and curved to end at a fallen tree just out of sight of this view.

Trio on the hill

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These three oaks stood separated from the other trees not only physically, but chromatically. This 6x8 inch oil on masonite was done just before the leaves on most of the other trees in the Mississenwa State Park in Indiana changed color. This has been a very strange year. usually by the middle of October all of the leaves have fallen off, but not this year.

Santa Fe church

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I found this church in New Santa Fe, Indiana and its shape reminded me of buildings in Santa Fe, NM. This is a 6x8 oil on masonite.

Red tree on a curve

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The trees at the edges of the deep woods still have their leaves. The ones in the center of the woods are almost devoid of their leaves.